Premier League: Steven Fletcher believes Sunderland will recover from recent poor form

Steven Fletcher says he has become accustomed to life in the lower reaches of the Premier League and is not daunted by the position Sunderland currently find themselves in.

The 27-year-old striker, who has been relegated from England’s top tier with Wolves and Burnley, sees his current employers languishing third from bottom in the table - with eight point after nine games and just a solitary victory to their name.

With injury preventing the Scot from participating in the Black Cats’ epic escape from the drop last season, Fletcher has vowed to draw upon his previous relegation and survival experience to guide Sunderland out of danger for a second consecutive season.

Ups and downs

Speaking ahead of Sunderland’s Monday Night Football trip to Selhurst Park, Fletcher stressed his team-mates, the majority of whom have spent their careers hovering around the relegation zone, would also remain unfazed in their pursuit of Premier League survival.

"The clubs I have been at, I'm used to it,” Fletcher said.

“The ups and downs, I am used to that kind of thing with being at Burnley and being at Wolves, so I kind of just take each day as it comes.

The boys know it's going to be a tough task to go on a run, but if we can put a good run together, we should move out.

"But there are only a few players who can say they have been used to winning ways - I'd say that's John O’Shea and Wes Brown, maybe Adam Johnson at some stage at Man City.

“So the boys should be used to going into one game and getting a win and then the next game, they know it's going to be a tough task to go on a run, but if we can put a good run together, we should move out."

Head coach Gus Poyet's squad was radically overhauled during the summer, but many of the men who forged the most unlikeliest of paths out of the drop zone remain at the club.

After Sunderland’s 8-0 mauling at Southampton, talk of a repeat of last season’s struggles resurfaced and the concerns strengthend after a calamitous 2-0 defeat at home to Arsenal – a game riddled by costly individual errors.

Ability

However, Fletcher, who is fit for Monday’s match after recovering from a foot injury sustained against the Gunners, believes there is enough in the Stadium of Light dressing room to draw the club clear before panic sets in.

"We know we have got the ability to stay in this league. The players we have got, you see it in training every day, some of the performances from the lads,” he added.

"But we just need to do it as a team and do it on a Saturday, or on a Monday. Obviously if we could be safe before we were last year, it would be a bit better, but we know we have got the team to get through a bad situation, like we showed last year.

"But we also feel we can put a good run together like we did in the (Capital One) cup, so if we can take that form we had in the league last year, and I think we will be more than okay."

Watch Sunderland's trip to Crystal Palace live on Monday Night Football. Coverage starts at 7pm, Sky Sports 1HD